Monday, 7 August 2017

To celebrate Canada 150 and my birthday, we did a family road trip across Canada,

from Mississauga to Vancouver,

to experience nature, wildlife and culture in this beautiful country!

This time, we parked the Audi's and drove a Jeep

Although we've done two previous road trips to Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Canadian Rockies, and several trips to the USA in past years in the Audi A3 and A4, we were doubtful Audi was reliable enough to handle this drive based on our past experience.In my experience, Audi's are better suited for city driving, not for long road trips.

Thanks to the folks who rented us a Jeep, we got a 2017 Grand Cherokee, Limited with a 3.6L V6 engine, all wheel drive and an 8 speed gearbox

Love the large wheels, big shocks and high profile tires

The seating height was a considerations for us.

As a driver you get a better view of the highway from a higher seating position.

A view of the Jeep from the Audi A3.

Also, way more space for our luggage. Remember, two weeks on the road!

Our route map from Mississauga to Vancouver and back, all through Canada only. No walls or borders to cross ☺

Ontario is so large, you can drive for a whole day and keep seeing Lake Superior all day long.

Love the rugged landscape, but having seen all the places on this route before, we didn't stop to do any sightseeing

There are many ways to travel, and everyone is going somewhere

We wanted to get out of the busy city life and reach the mountains as soon as we could with only daytime driving, so we covered about 3,500 kilometres in the first 3 days.

Somewhere on the Trans-Canada Highway 1 in the peaceful Canadian prairies

Saskatchewan is known as the bread basket of Canada.

When you are driving long distances in the prairies, one game to play with the family,

is try counting the number of cars on some of the freight trains. They are really long and colorful.

And for the sake of our planet and our future generations, we need to preserve it

Well, that's how we celebrated Canada 150 and my 51st birthday, with a family road trip in God's own country!

Stuff I liked most about the Jeep was:

1) Sitting at a higher level with a good view of the highway

2) The 8 speed transmission - because of which I was getting almost the same mileage as the Audi

3) The ground clearance. I didn't have to worry about scraping a bumper or rocks touching the under-body

4) High profile tires. I didn't have to worry about scraping the rims

5) Most of all, I could fill ordinary petrol at any gas station, unlike in the case of the Audi, where we would have to use 91 octane or higher. On remote stretches of highway, it is sometimes very difficult to find gas stations like Shell with 91+ octane.

This is what a road warrior looks like after driving 10,000 kilometres